Don't Give Up on Me
by BrokenDaisyChain
Summary: Amon's vendetta against Korra began long before his reign in Republic City-back to when she was only a toddler. The twist he forces her fate takes leads her far away from the Southern Water Tribe-into the heart of the Fire Nation. A fish out of water, there is only one person she could always depend on-so why is he suddenly acting so strange around her when she needs him the most?


A/N: A friend and I were watching LOK…and realized that Korra acted more like a firebender than anything (She always goes for fire when attacked)…this idea came from that discussion…

Also…though everything sees Makorra as a resurrection of Zutarra…Korah seems far more befitting…

* * *

**Prologue…**

* * *

"The Avatar needs to be moved to a safe location." Tozal, head of the Order of the White Lotus, said this with a matter-of-fact coldness. The water-tribe couple, parents of Avatar Korra, had been murdered only a few short hours ago…and he was all business. Acting like the child wasn't in the neighboring room, sleeping only after crying herself into such a state. "Before there is another attack on her life."

Katara leaned against the closed door of the young girl's, toddler would be a better descriptor, room. Glaring at the middle-aged man and reminding herself that putting him in his place wouldn't help the situation. "Where to? If she wasn't safe here, at her home and surrounded by members of your order, where?"

"We'll put her in protective care, hidden from the world-"

"Complete isolationism? No." The past Avatar's widow shook her head, white-touched strands of hair drifted over her face. Long gone was the wide-eye girl who had discovered the boy in the iceberg, behind was a woman who had seen too much and was tired.

Both physically and mentally.

Aang had only been gone for less than four years, the idea of the resurrection of her free, fun-loving husband being locked up was almost too much for her.

"While we respect your input on the matter, you'll find that you don't have much of a say on the matter." Tozal straightened his spine and puffed out his chest, trying to feign confident power to cover his grasp at keeping his inflated ego intact.

"Yet you, and those who came before your time in the order, fell to her on bended knee for guidance and support only a few short years ago. Does Katara's wisdom and power instantly disperse with the death of Avatar Aang?" Firelord Zuko stood in the entrance way of the small home. Arm's crossed over his chest; his unmarred eye looked the small group over. Making the Lotus members shrink away from the disapproval there.

"Zuko." Katara couldn't keep the smile out of his name, or off of her face at the sight of him. Sokka and Toph were dealing with matters in Republic City and she had thought she would be without allies while taking on the band of hardheaded men. Things had been so much easier while Bumi and Iroh had in heads of the order.

They listened to reason.

Zuko spared a moment to give his long-time friend a gentle smile before unhitching himself from the wall and entering the once happy home. Even in his seventies, the Firelord maintained a powerful build and commanding presence that dominated any company he found himself in. When he talked, people took notice. "I will not have you ruin the memory of Avatar Aang by locking his next life away like a common criminal."

"She wouldn't be locked away…she would be protected."

"Protection is sometimes just a beautiful way of saying incarcerated." He held up a hand to stop any objections. "I agree that her safety is of the utmost importance, which is why I have come with an alternative to your proposal."

"Which is?"

Zuko's lips lifted in a crooked grin. Where there once had been an eyebrow, the skin lifted. "What's more feared than an army of firebenders…which I happen to have at my disposal at my palace."

"That," Katara said with a sigh of relief, "is something I would agree to."

* * *

Screaming rang through the corridors of the palace. Three children, two boys and a girl, ran down the long stretch with wild abandonment…looking for a means to escape and hide. On their heels was a dark-skinned girl, barely ten, wearing the traditional uniform of the fire academy. Her hair had fallen from its usual ponytail, strands of rich-brown hung in eyes an intense shade of blue that was unheard of in the fire nation.

"HELP US!"

"SHE'S GOING TO KILL US!"

"DADDY!"

The three being hunted hammered on doors and shot pathetic wisps of flames towards the girl on the rampage.

"What's going on here?" A voice, holding authority despite the youth of its speaker, cut through the chaos.

The three stopped, seeing salvation in the teenager standing at the end of the hall. "Iroh!  
They said with an almost prayer-like reverence.

The girl kept running towards them, her intent didn't waver as her closed fists burst into flames.

"Korra." There was a warning note in the teenager's voice, but he made no move to stop her. "What happened?"

She slowed her pace, flames still crackling at her fingers…but tears were dangerous close to spilling out of her eyes. "They called a fish-tick pretending to be a dragon…that now Firelord Zuko is dead I should be sent back to the South Pole and disgrace another roof. That," Her voice broke, "that they were happy he was gone so they didn't have to endure…" She couldn't finish, the sobs were too thick.

She knew that she hadn't always lived in the fire palace, that she once had a home in the water tribe in the south. But that didn't mean she could remember a time before living amongst the firebenders. Firelord Zuko had been old enough to be her grandfather, yet he had raised her as if she was his daughter…his very young daughter than came about unexpectedly.

That didn't mean that other members of his family felt the same way.

Iroh, who was said to be the spitting image of his grandfather in his youth, cocked an eyebrow while his mouth thinned to almost invisible extents. Golden eyes contemplated the three noble children cowering between him and Korra. "I suggest that you run, before I forget that I'll get kitchen duty for harassing those younger than me." Flames danced over his fingers and up his arms for an added measure.

The three scattered, jumping through an open window and into the courtyard beyond.

"You should have let me hit them." Korra sulked, kicking the wall beside her, leaving behind a scorch mark. There was five years between Iroh and Korra, yet he had always been the one she had been the closest to. Since she had been brought to the palace.

Growing up, the two of them had gotten into more trouble than some would say they were worth, only Zuko could truly reign them in…affection in his chastising when they were brought to him burned and battered from one harebrain scheme or fight or anything else.

With Zuko's death, Iroh had been enrolled into the military academy. His father, and new firelord, hoped that some militant discipline would break his son's stubborn, hotheaded streak. Along with putting distance between him and his partner in crime.

"Come on," Iroh walked over to Korra, a hand on her head with fingers twining through her hair. "I'm only home for the holiday…let's make the most of it."

Bright blue eyes, shining form tears Korra refused to continue shedding…ashamed of those that already escaped, looked up at him. He had grown in the time away from the palace. "Katara went to Republic City to visit Tenzin, he had another baby. You're learning all about manning a boat, want to flood the east passage and force the three idiots to see who really is a fish-tick?"

"Umm…yeah…tempting, I'll admit. But I have another idea."

Korra crinkled her nose. "What's that?"

Iroh's hand moved from her hair to her back, steering her out the main entrance. "As you mentioned, I'm being taught to sail. My class trip before vacation was up to the North Pole. Councilman Sokka was our guest instructor and he wanted to each us the finer points of ice-dodging."

"Lucky." Korra wasn't over sulking, but not fighting his guidance down the steps and towards the gates surrounding the palace. They both ignored the litter and its bearers assigned to aid them. "He said I was too young for that…and his heart's too old to deal with me catching his boat on fire."

"For good reason."

"Am I ever going to live that down…the boat was made of metal, how was I to know the flames would catch?"

Iroh smiled, a thick lock of slightly-waved hair fell over his forehead. "Anyway, during the trip, I found something that reminded me of you." A hand fell over her eyes.

"Iroh, I'm not Toph. I can't see through my feet."

"That's the point. One…Two…Three…" His hand lifted after those steps, bring them past the gates.

Stopping at where one of Iroh's classmates held the leash of a squiggling pup of a Polarbear-dog.

Korra's mouth dropped, along with her knees. The pup was on her in an instant, licking her face and wiggling with glee. Bringing laughter bubbling through her lips.

"I thought you should have a bit of your past. After all, grandfather said that you should never forget who you are, where you come from, and flaunt matters that narrow-minded people would like you to hide."


End file.
